MONTGOMERY, Ala. – After a five-candidate primary field forced her into a runoff, Rep. Martha Roby on Tuesday clinched the Republican nomination for her congressional seat.

The Associated Press called the race for Roby less than two hours after polls closed.

The congresswoman bested Bobby Bright, who held the seat as a Democrat from 2009 to 2011 and switched parties to challenge Roby in the Republican primary. She will face first time candidate Tabitha Isner in November.

"I want to thank the people who live and work in Alabama's 2nd District," Roby said Tuesday night in an impassioned speech. "It’s a tremendous blessing to serve you. I want each person who I represent to know that I wake up each and every day to work to be the best representative I can be. This seat belongs to you, and I will never forget that."

Roby supporters mingled in one of the smaller event rooms in Montgomery's Renaissance hotel Tuesday night, a more intimate gathering than several state candidates in adjacent ballrooms. But the runoff gathering itself was a show of confidence from Roby's camp. On June 5, Roby and her team watched the results in a private location, pushing back media availability until it was all but certain she was heading toward a runoff.

A former Montgomery city council member and River Region native, Roby’s rural credentials were suggested as a weak spot in the 2nd Congressional District that encompasses the state’s urban seat of government and the agrarian Wiregrass region.

But early returns on Tuesday showed strong support for Roby throughout the district after she spent several weeks crisscrossing the region for campaign events.

"She has spent a substantial amount of time in the Wiregrass in the primary," said Republican strategist Angi Horn Stalnaker, who previously noted the area as a weak spot for Roby. "She's been a very visible presence."

Her Republican credentials were walloped as well over the past year after Roby's stinging rebuke of then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016 after a tape emerged in which Trump bragged about grabbing women’s genitalia without their consent. Roby withdrew her endorsement of Trump, an albatross her opponents within the party continued to hang around her neck through the primary.

But in June, Trump himself tweeted Roby was a "reliable vote for our Make America Great Again Agenda."